Apple today announced its earnings for its first fiscal quarter of 2012. Apple’s revenue amounted to $46.33B in Q1. With earnings of $13.87 per share. The company’s net profit in Q1 was $13.06B. These numbers destroyed industry estimates across the board in every area of hardware sales and profitability aside from iPods.

Apple sold 37.04M iPhones, up 128% year over year, and 15.43M iPads this quarter, up 111% year over year. Apple sold 5.2M Macs during the quarter, bringing sales up 26% when compared to the same quarter a year ago. iPod sales were down 21%.

The iPhone alone accounted for 53% of the company’s revenue for the quarter. The company is currently up 10% in after-hours trading at $460.

“We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.”

“We are very happy to have generated over $17.5 billion in cash flow from operations during the December quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2012, which will span 13 weeks, we expect revenue of about $32.5 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $8.50.”

Dare to compare

Fortune estimates of Apple’s Q4 had placed overall revenue estimates from analysts at around $41.8B, with earnings of $11.57/share. Estimates had placed iPhone sales at around 33.4M and iPad sales at around 15M.

In the Q4 2011 earnings report, issued in October, Apple reported $28.27B revenue, 6.62B profit, $7.05 EPS, 17.1M iPhones, 11.1M iPads, 4.89M Macs. In Q3 of 2011, Apple reported an 82% quarterly growth with revenue of $28.57B and a net profit of $7.31B, representing a record for that quarter and a 125% growth in profits. International sales accounted for 62% of Q2′s revenue.

The stash

Apple now has a cash hoard, including cash, short term and long term investments, of some $97.6 billion. What it will do with that cash remains to be seen.

Apple will be streaming its earnings call live at 2pm, we will bring you important news and analysis from the call shortly thereafter.

This is a developing story, please refresh for the latest information.